[6.] Sixthly and lastly. Inordinate cares are a reproach to the pity and compassion of God, Mat. vi. S2. They speak out God to be a God of no pity, of no bowels, of no tenderness ; whereas God is all pities, all bowels, all compassions, all tendernesses : Ps. ciii. 13, ' Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.' There is an ocean of love and pity in a father's heart to his children, Gen. xxxiii. 13, 14; and there is much more in God's to his. Hence he is called the Father by way of eminency ; and indeed, originally and properly, there is no Father to him, there is no Father like him, there is no Father besides him ; and he is called the Father of all mercies, because all the mercies, all the pities, all the bowels, all the compassions that are in all the fathers on earth, are but a drop of his ocean, a spark of his flame, a mite out of his treasury.' That father that sees his child in want, and pities him not, and pitying, if able, relieves him not, for- feits the very name of father, and may better write himself monster than man. I have read of a young man who, being at sea in a mighty storm, was very merry when all the passengers were at their wit's end for fear, &c. ; and when he was asked the reason of his mirth, he answered, that the pilot of the ship was his father, and he knew that such was his father's pity and compassion, that he would have a care of him. O sirs ! whatever storms the people of God may be in, yet such is his pity and compassion towards them, that he will be sure to have a care of them. Tlie Lord is all that to his people, and will be all that to his people, yea, and infinitely more than that which Isis Mammosa was to the Egyp- tians, a god full of dugs ; and whilst he hath a breast, there is no reason why his children should fear the want of milk. That golden promise, Heb. xiii. 5, were there no more, hath enough in it to steel and arm the soul against all inordinate cares. The Greek hath five negatives, and may thus be rendered : ' I will not, not leave thee, neither will I not, not forsake thee.'^ Five times, as one well observes, is this precious promise renewed, that we may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of its consolations, that we may milk out and be delighted with the abun- dance of its glory. O sirs ! shall the word, the promise, the protest of a king, arm us and cheer us up against all inordinate cares, and shall not the word, the promise, the protest of the King of kings, so often repeated, much more arm us against all base, distrustful, and distracting cares ? O Christians ! the remembrance of this blessed truth, that God
' Eph. iii. 16. God is pater miserationum ; 1am pius nemo, tam pater nemo, saith Bernard. - ei) (in ou S« at) firi, never, in no wise, in no case ; whatever 1 do, 1 will not do this, whatever shift 1 make.
66 AN ARK FOR ALL QOD'S NOAHS. [LaM. III. 24.
is your portion, should make you sing care away, as that famous martyr said, ' My soul is turned to her rest ; I have taken a sweet nap in Christ's lap ; and therefore I will now sing away care, and will be care- less, according to my name.'' If the sense of God's being a man's portion will not bum up all those inordinate cares that commonly fills his head, and that disturbs, and distracts, and racks his heart, I profess I cannot tell what will. It was a strange speech of Socrates, a heathen : Since God is so careful for you, saith he, what need you be careful for anything yourselves ? But,
(10.) Tenthly, If God be the saints' portion, then all is theirs. As he said, Ghristus mens et omnia, Christ is mine, and all is mine ; so may a Christian say, DeiLS 'm,eus et omnia mea, God is mine, and all is mine.* If God be thy portion, then heaven and earth are thine ; then all the good and all the glory of both worlds are thine ; then all the upper and the nether springs are thine : 1 Cor. iii. 21, ' AH things are yours ;' ver. 22, ' whether Paul, or ApoUos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come ; all are yours.' The scope of the apostle is not to shew that such as are saints, and have God for their portion, have a civil and common interest in all men's earthly possessions ; but it is to shew that aU things are prepared, ordered, and ordained by God to serve the interest of his people, to work for the good of his people, and to help on the happiness and blessedness of his people. All the gifts, and all the graces, and all the experiences, and all the excellencies, and all the mercies of the ministers of the gospel, whether they are ordinary or extraordinary, are all for the information, edification, confirmation, consolation, and salvation of the church ; and all the good and all the sweet of the creatures are to be let out for the good of the people of God, and for the comfort of the people of God, and for the encouragement of the people of God ; all changes, all conditions, all occurrences, shall be sure ' to work together for their good,' Rom. viii. 28, that have God for their portion. What- ever the present posture of things are, or whatever the future state of things shall be, yet they shall all issue in their good, in their profit, in their advantage, that have God for their portion. Look, as the wife communicates in her husband's honour and wealth, and as the branches partake of the fatness and sweetness of the root, and as the members derive sense and motion from the head ; so the saints communicate in all that good which in God is communicable to them. God is commu- nicative, as the fig-tree, the vine, and the olive is. 0 sirs ! if God be your portion, then every promise in the book of God is yours, and every attribute in the book of God is yours, and every privilege in the book of God is yours, and every comfort in the book of God is yours, and every blessing in the book of God is yours, and every treasury in the book of God is yours, and every mercy in the book of God is yours, and every ordinance in the book of God is yours, and every sweet in the book of God is yours ; if God be yours, all is yours. When Alex- ander asked king Porus, who was then his prisoner,^ how he would be used ? he answered in one word, Baff/X/xwj, like a king. Alexander again
• John Carless in a letter to Mr Philops. — Acts and Mon. fol. 1743, &c. [Foxe by Townsend, vol. viii. p. 172, and sub nomine. — G.]
* Cf. Sibbes's Works, Vol. ii., note w, p. 195. — G. ^ Plutarch in Apophthegmata.
Lam. III. 24..] an ark for all god's noahs. 67